ChefGreen
New Member
Hey Sunny! Take a look at your current bill and see what your electric company is charging you for each kilawatt hour (KWh). A lot of equipment comes with a chart or you can find them online ("appliance cost calculator"). You input the wattage of your lights, the hours per day you are running them and the cents per KW.
For example:
Wattage of Appliance: Two 500 watt lights (1000 watts)
Hours per day: 12 hours
Cents per KWh: (check your electric bill) 8.7
Which would add up to:
Cost per day: 1.04
Cost per quarter: 95.26
Cost per year: 381.06
You also have some flexibility with your choice of lights. We are currently using high-pressure sodium for our Flowering and metal halide for Veg. If you are looking to keep costs down, you can consider using fluorscent or LED. We had used fluorescent in our very first grow, as once upon a time we were in a small apartment and did not want the immense amount of heat that the lights we are currently using throw off. I have no experience with LED grows, but I believe that is what Buckshot is using.
Like I mentioned above, heat is also a factor to consider besides cost. We are currently using a growing room we built off our garage, and even with air-cooled lights that vent outside, we still have to run an air conditioner in our garage to keep the plants at a managable heat as well as our house. Before we vented out of the house and the ducting blew air into our garage, temperatures soared well into the nineties. The plants also received quite a shock for a few days as temperatures peaked at 100 degrees while Chrome worked to get supplies and send ducting out of the house. It now looks similar to a dryer vent on the outside.
Thank you dadums for the advice. I will absolutely look into the soy-based spray. We have been using up the last of our nutrients, as I would like to start leaning more towards organic. The water conditioner they told me about at the grow store was supposedly to kill the larva, as it was mixed into the water, but it appears to not be helping. The grow room is built inside the garage, the room itself is well sealed, and the passive intake vents are screened. When I open the main door to work, bring in water buckets or what have you, there is a high possibility that one or two little bastards are flying in unnoticed and having a field day. The garage itself needs new doors, as the insulation is null. We'll be working on that in the future.
We use new soil each grow, the old I disperse in my garden outside. I have to take a run to the fish store today to buy some worms and pellets, it's not too far off from the grow shop. They were watered last night, so I have a day or two before I can water again, but will definitely look into the spray you suggested.
I should have some neem oil left over from the very first grow we did, where we had purchased plants that were unfortunately infested with spider mites. I hate even reminding myself of that awful experience. I'll let you all know how it goes tonight!
For example:
Wattage of Appliance: Two 500 watt lights (1000 watts)
Hours per day: 12 hours
Cents per KWh: (check your electric bill) 8.7
Which would add up to:
Cost per day: 1.04
Cost per quarter: 95.26
Cost per year: 381.06
You also have some flexibility with your choice of lights. We are currently using high-pressure sodium for our Flowering and metal halide for Veg. If you are looking to keep costs down, you can consider using fluorscent or LED. We had used fluorescent in our very first grow, as once upon a time we were in a small apartment and did not want the immense amount of heat that the lights we are currently using throw off. I have no experience with LED grows, but I believe that is what Buckshot is using.
Like I mentioned above, heat is also a factor to consider besides cost. We are currently using a growing room we built off our garage, and even with air-cooled lights that vent outside, we still have to run an air conditioner in our garage to keep the plants at a managable heat as well as our house. Before we vented out of the house and the ducting blew air into our garage, temperatures soared well into the nineties. The plants also received quite a shock for a few days as temperatures peaked at 100 degrees while Chrome worked to get supplies and send ducting out of the house. It now looks similar to a dryer vent on the outside.
Thank you dadums for the advice. I will absolutely look into the soy-based spray. We have been using up the last of our nutrients, as I would like to start leaning more towards organic. The water conditioner they told me about at the grow store was supposedly to kill the larva, as it was mixed into the water, but it appears to not be helping. The grow room is built inside the garage, the room itself is well sealed, and the passive intake vents are screened. When I open the main door to work, bring in water buckets or what have you, there is a high possibility that one or two little bastards are flying in unnoticed and having a field day. The garage itself needs new doors, as the insulation is null. We'll be working on that in the future.
We use new soil each grow, the old I disperse in my garden outside. I have to take a run to the fish store today to buy some worms and pellets, it's not too far off from the grow shop. They were watered last night, so I have a day or two before I can water again, but will definitely look into the spray you suggested.
I should have some neem oil left over from the very first grow we did, where we had purchased plants that were unfortunately infested with spider mites. I hate even reminding myself of that awful experience. I'll let you all know how it goes tonight!
